Steamboating
on the Missouri River required
a different breed of boat, designed specifically to be propelled,
fueled and repaired by crewmen plying an untamed river. These great
boats carried freight by the hundreds of tons, passengers by the
score, and literally lifted themselves over shoals and reefs. These
smoking, puffing, creaking works of carpenter Gothic usually wore
themselves out or sank to the bottom within five years of their
launching.

This Missouri River is not the river we know today, but a wild river
as recalled by the crewmen and passengers who traveled it in the
nineteenth century, recording their stories as memoirs, diary and
journal entries. The stories contain long-forgotten accounts of
steamboat navigation and operations, vivid descriptions
of the river, the crewmen and passengers, and tales of disaster and
unexpected peril.

And there is more to those episodes than just a parade of boats
on the river. In every story we catch a glimpse of our shared human
traits played out in different times and circumstances. It is for our
benefit as well as their own that those pioneers faced the challenge
of their frontier river. WILD RIVER, WOODEN
BOATS is their story--and
ours.

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